Ho Ho Ho...Bring on Christmas....

I've hit the deck running folks, determined not to let Christmas gift buying get me down. Since the store is now closed on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, I went shopping on the first Tuesday we were closed. I hounded my children and grandchildren for their lists and told them they had to be in my hands Thanksgiving night. Some of the family did adhere to my schedule while others felt I didn't really mean it and came to dinner unaware. But when I told them to start the list right then and there or end up with whatever I decided to get them (and no one wants that), they started writing frantically. So Tuesday morning I ate a good breakfast, loaded my money into my purse and drove off to Salisbury with lists in hand. First stop....Best Buy since everyone had electronics on their list. Now this time last year I went into that store for the first time, got boggled down and ended up walking out with nothing. But this year I went in with a new determination. I started off by grabbing some poor unsuspecting employee and handing him the lists and said, "Load up the cart"....which he was more than happy to do. I made the mistake of walking by the computer aisle....they just call out to me. I was in the market for a new computer as my Dell has now lost approximately 6 keys...yes they fell off...so I've had a regular size keyboard plugged into the laptop since this summer, which hasn't been a problem, but I don't want to have to take that to Nashville in February and so I knew I had to get a new computer (O.K., I could have had the keyboard replaced, but let's face it that computer was old...I've had it for approximately 5 years I think...well, perhaps less, but anyway, I was due for a new one. I had gone on-line and picked out a HP (their keys never flipped off), and by the time I got done cherry picking what I wanted it was almost $2000...so when I saw the HP I had been looking at ...Bronze and gorgeous...at Best Buy, I said, what the hell, load her up. Now while it didn't have exactly what the on-line machine had...it did have the same memory, etc., which is what is important for me...for $959. So I walked out of Best Buy much lighter in the wallet, but happy as a clam and thinking..."what a wonderful buying experience this was." When I got home I couldn't wait to get my new computer out....and that's when the buying experience turned a tad sour. The machine the nice young man loaded on my cart was not my Bronze baby but a blue computer which I didn't like...so I worried over this every night and decided that instead of arriving at work in the office on time, I needed to get to Best Buy to get this straight before I drove myself crazy. So first thing Wednesday I was back over to the Salisbury to make the exchange. When I arrived at the counter there was my little salesboy, Jon, who looked up at me, smiled and said, "I gave you the wrong computer didn't I?" I have to say he did apologize to me about 16 times, and I decided that I'd forgive the faux pas since it's the Christmas season and I'm in a giving mood at this point. So he got the correct computer (and you can bet I checked this out before I walked out the door) for me, redid all the paper work on it and once again I was out the door and on my way to work. When I took the computer out at home I couldn't wait to get on-line and do some blogging, however I found that they no longer include discs to restore your computer should something go wrong so I didn't want to take a chance on picking up a virus so I had to wait another day. To make the recovery discs, which is what they tell you to do first thing, you needed either 14 cd's or 2 DVD's, neither of which I had so it was another night of not going on line....but I did play games for 4 hours so my time was entirely wasted. Wednesday I was back over to Best Buy to help Sara with something, and when I went to show her what my new computer looked like I saw the sign now on the computer stating that it was reduced to $849. Now my buying experience was taking a downward turn. So I pulled out the sales receipts from the previous day, walked up to the coouter and said, "When did these computers go on sale?" I was informed they do their mark-downs on Sunday...so I then said, "Then why did I pay $100 more yesterday, which was Tuesday?" After looking at my receipt he sent me to customer service who also looked at the receipt and couldn't quite figure out what went wrong. I could have told them...Jon...my nice little saleboy was not the smarest tack in the box...but anyway they refunded my $107 so that was a good thing. Thank God I went back in to show Sara. I continued shopping and arrived home tired but almost done with my shopping. I'm telling you folks, I'm about done which is not only my miracle at Christmas but a first for me. Of course, that doesn't mean I'm 100% done, but I'm darn close and one more trip to Salisbury should do it. I did order some items on-line and while the 2 electric Razor scooters for 2 of my grandchildren were put on back order...they arrived today and Vernon put them together, took a test ride on one and they are being charged now for Christmas day. Sara and I are discussing getting a couple for us for summer ...we could get horns and carry flood lights as we monitor the parking lots for "pee'ers". I think it would help us scare the "pee'ers" if nothing else....and then we could add the stun guns and we would almost be as good as any security force in town. But I digress...now that I've got a computer at home I'm hoping to get caught up with the web site and blogging. I think I told you I was working so hard on Christmas gifts (the stitched ones) and was doing really well...well that went to hell in a handbasket. I got so interested in the Emmanuel Shepherd's Bush Kit that it's all I've worked on in the past week...love it. I'm almost done so I'll have a picture for you in a couple of days. There were a few sections of Swedish weaving and I found that by the time I got to the end I was really kind of enjoying it. But our Stitch 'n Bitch Christmas meeting at Fagers is on Tuesday night so this weekend I've got to finish these Christmas gifts. The stitching is done...it's the assembly that needs to be completed....(isn't that typical), but I'm sure I can focus on it tomorrow since we won't have any new shipments to deal with. I'm still like a child with shiny objects...let the UPS man show up and I don't care what I was working on I stop to open boxes and see what we've got. I can't wait for Christmas so I can see the kids with their new games, toys, etc. Because even with their lists I get things like the electric scooters that they have no idea about, so there are always surprises. Weather Alert...it's freezing down here! My new computer tells me it's almost 1 a.m., so I need to get some sleep...with this computer living at home with me I will try to blog more often. Hope your holiday preparations are going smoothly. Talk to you soon.